Market Perception: The Good, The Evil, and Switching Sides
In the world of social media, is your company good or is it evil? Reputation management, or more specifically market perception management goes hand in hand with successful social media marketing. Which side of the fence will your company fall on?
Have a look at some of the biggest brands in the market right now and how the market perceives them:
No company makes blunders or delivers a shoddy product on purpose; most companies aren't self-destructive by nature. But all companies make mistakes. In the end, how the public deals with a company's mistakes, or the limitations (inadequacies) of their product/service depends on how company is perceived by them. If perceived negatively, they are unlikely to buy your product and if perceived in a positive light, not only will your current customers stick, but you will also get return customers. For example, Sony is perceived as ill-willed and hyperbole-laden while Nintendo is seen as quite the opposite.
For most companies, you don't have to be stuck on the wrong side of the fence. Changing the perception of your company could be just one click away.
We are dedicated to helping you understand the public perspective online and generating new forms of outreach in order to ensure that the public perceives your company like you do. We can help you get your voice back.
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Reader Comments (8)
- MG Siegler, March 23, 2007
- Chris, March 23, 2007
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Interesting...I don't really think that people think Netscape is evil, just irrelevent. Also, I would switch Myspace and Google. Nobody thinks MySpace is evil, just stupid. Google is becoming more and more like a traditional media company (i.e. very very evil.)
- Chris Hemphill, March 23, 2007
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Some of these can be viewed as David vs. Goliath, but the interesting part is how a branch of a company ex. XBox and Microsoft can take on different perceptions. I in general think of most typical news networks as evil (due to all the celebrity reporting.)
- doug, March 24, 2007
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Have a look at some of the biggest brands in the market right now and how the market perceives them:
I'm especially befuddled by the classification of MySpace and Fox News as "evil."
MySpace seems to be popular with most folks aside from uptight politicians and web development purists.
Fox News is conservative, in addition to being "tabloidish" and annoying...but Fox started smaller than MSNBC and CNN and now dominates cable news. Seems like they're a hit with "the market."
While I found myself nodding with most of the companies you labeled "good" or "evil" I think that a lot of folks would disagree. I mean, how many normal people think Microsoft is evil? Shoot...how many normal people even think about Microsoft?!?!
Your diagram would be better labeled, "Have a look at some of the biggest brands in the market right now and how the average Slashdot reader perceives them." That gets the tech savvy (and liberal-leaning) demographic that even knows enough about Ubuntu or DRM to view them as "good" or "evil." :)
- Joshua Dorkin, March 24, 2007
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I'm starting to hear more and more buzz that Google needs to move to the other column.
- lee, March 24, 2007
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Of course, on a micro scale, this goes for one's blog as well. As I get my blog off the ground, I wonder how much of my personal feelings about potentially polarizing issues I want to express. If I let loose, and tell the world who I really am, I definitely risk alienating half of my potential readers. If, on the other hand, I try to keep the real me out of it, I risk not having any readers at all.
- Zach Katkin, March 25, 2007
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I think the generalizations you make are gross... not that they smell bad, or have puss oozing from them, but you are making them from a gross, very informed, web point of view. I highly doubt most 40+ year old tv purchasers know about the kind of shady tactics Sony used to promote the PS3 or the way the entire launch was botched. From their perspective Sony is still a great brand that makes excellent televisions.
Although I don't understand how Doug could find it so hard that Fox News is evil (or that some believe it to be evil) he does have a point with MySpace. Most friends I've talked to (outside the web community) love it and are addicted to it, completely ignorant of the terrible structure, function, design, ads, etc...
I like the subversive nature of this post. It's very true "customers are getting louder." the other day I blogged about Bose headphones and how crappy they were (on my personal blog) and I have had a huge response. But, my question to you is how do you prepose to or already do, reputation management, especially online?
Do you and Neil use strong arm tactics threatening fellow bloggers with strategic online harrasment techniques, perfectly timed and featuring great captive headlines? Do you guys create fake myspace profiles that get indexed and make your clients' opponents out to be racist neo-nazi's? Or maybe you just send them cases of beer and liquor and hope they'll drink their poor product experiences away?
I'm sick of this Muhammad.
- Thomas Aylott, March 26, 2007
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I doubt there's much even the great ACS can do about those guys on the right. ;)
But, uh... comment guys? Web marketing isn't going to be swaying the opinions of people who aren't on the web or aren't heavily swayed by it that is. Those companies would have to manage their online and offline reputations separately.
Obviously the companies in that image were for example only, just some of the companies that are obviously on one side or the other. But, most of the online reputation management that is actually done online is for companies that are mostly online-only companies.
Get a grip and remember context
